Lance
Lance is a character in the . First appearing as the second player in the 2 Player mode of Brawl Royale, he acts as the final boss as well as the main antagonist of before joining the party as a playable character in and following games. Appearance Lance is depicted as an adult (though age factor is highly debatable in the EBF world) with spiky auburn hair. When he first appeared in Brawl Royale, he wore a red jacket over a white shirt bearing a star insignia with the word "Epic" written on it. In this appearance, he wielded the Silver Blade, which appears later in Matt's arsenal of swords. When Lance appeared in EBF2, he donned an SS Nazi uniform, with the Nazi swastika on the armband reversed (making it a sign of peace and less controversial), with an eyepatch covering his right eye. His main weapon was a black gunblade, which is a sword with a long-barreled revolver built into it, and he piloted the massive Valkyrie Tank. In EBF3, his default costume is a green army helmet, a matching green jacket and pants, and a bandolier of ammunition. In addition to his gunblade, he could now choose from a variety of massive guns to carry on his back, which were used for some of his special attacks. In EBF4, Lance has resumed wearing his officer-stylized gear as his default outfit. However, the swastikas have been replaced by Iron Crosses (as they were in EBF3). In EBF5, he replaces his gunblade with a more traditional revolver that changes color/design depending on his currently equipped gun. Personality ''Epic Battle Fantasy 2''-''4'' In EBF2, Lance was a character who believed the world would be better off under his rule. After his defeat at Matt and Natalie's hand, he no longer seems to try taking over the world, though his army is still around and he still occasionally wears Nazi-esque uniforms. Lance has a socially awkward attitude around women and has a fondness of military weapons, vehicles, and armaments. Despite being even more lecherous than Matt (in the forest, he "accidentally" lifts Natz's skirt, in the desert, he tries to get her to take her top off, and imagined her naked in EBF4 in Goldenbrick Resort), he can be quite intelligent, as shown in EBF3 when he explains The Rift to Matt and Natalie in accurate context. His perverted attitude is sometimes discouraged by Matt (in EBF4, Matt explained to Lance that Natalie would probably stop hating him if he didn't stare at her 24/7). Based on Lance's quotes in EBF4, it is possible that Lance had a rough childhood with an abusive father. (He has a few quotes when receiving minor damage on how his "father had slapped me harder than that when I was a baby"). ''Epic Battle Fantasy 5'' In EBF5, Lance is portrayed as more of a misunderstood villain who undergoes a sort of redemption arc. Prior to the beginning of the game, he was among the first in the world to discover the threat the Cosmic Monoliths posed. Upon discovering clues of an otherworldly invasion looming ahead, he tried to warn everyone but was simply scoffed at and dismissed as an empty claim. Believing he had no other choice, he took it upon himself to build an army to prepare against the alien threat, though at the expense of the forests and the environments of the west side of Greenwood Village, resulting in him and his army being branded as "fascists." After running Matt and his party over with the Neon Valkyrie as they arrived in No Man's Land, he captured Natalie and several other young women for his plan to repopulate the world after the Monoliths were dealt with. When Matt and his allies rescued her and defeated him, Lance was forced to join the party as their traveling "prisoner", although he was allowed to contribute in combat due to necessity. At this point, Lance continued to defend his actions, as he believed himself to be in the right since his end goal was to prevent the world from being destroyed by the Monoliths, but his attitude on this subject shifts later on. Halfway through the game, Lance apologizes to Natalie and Anna for kidnapping the former and waging war on the hometown of the latter. Admitting the error of his ways he calls them by their name for the first time; this marks a significant change in Lance's character, with him transitioning from begrudging respect to genuine friendship. However, he brushes off NoLegs and Matt's uprising, claiming they deserved to be roadkill as they invaded his base. By the end of the game, Lance is on far better terms with the team; while he is still at odds with Natalie from time to time, his relationship with the party is far closer to previous games. Feeling the path of the hero has grown on him as being better than that of the villain, Lance becomes a willing party member who helps fight against the threat he saw when the game began. Through Lance's quotes after visiting Anna's family in Greenwood Village and while the party is in Redpine Town, Lance's backstory is significantly more fleshed out than in previous games. In particular, it is shown that Lance spent most of his childhood without any parents in an orphanage at Redpine Town. He never got to know his mother, and his father died to an experimental explosion while he was still young. Lance himself does not express much grief over their death, as his father was abusive and did not care much for him (in fact, his father may have tried to hang him under the pretext that it would "make Lance taller"). The orphanage he went to was not particualrly pleasant either, with Lance specifically stating that it was "where my hatred of humanity began"Lance while exploring Redpine Town, ''Epic Battle Fantasy 5''. While not all of his childhood was atrocious - for instance, Lance has fond memories of going hunting with his father - it had a traumatic effect on Lance and nurtured most of his negative traits. Role Brawl Royale Lance didn't have any significance to the plot in Brawl Royale, but he did serve as the second player character in the multiplayer. It can be assumed that this match was a preliminary to the actual tournament. Epic Battle Fantasy 2 In EBF2, Lance is the main antagonist and final boss of the game. After Matt and Natalie killed Zombie Goku, the world was nearly destroyed by the newly-formed mutants (as a result of the radiation due to the destruction of Zombie Goku). In this chaos, Lance attempted to take over the Earth, apparently believing that order could only be restored to the world through its complete destruction. After taking down Lance in the end, Matt recognized Lance's fighting spirit and they became friends. Lance later proceeds to join Matt, becoming a party member. Epic Battle Fantasy 3 Lance, for one who recently served as a final boss, gets along well with Natalie and Matt, joking, swimming, and fighting with them. Natalie cautiously keeps other girls away from him, as seen when he talks to Hikari, an NPC from the Town. He is unique in the sense that he is the only one able to add foes to the Bestiary, via his scanning ability. In his free time (idle animation) he talks about weapons, money and tanks, sometimes via his radio, as well as reading different magazines, including an erotic one. Adventure Story Reprising his role as the main antagonist, Lance kidnaps Natalie and takes off with an unnamed tank in the intro cutscene, creating the conflict of the game. Matt goes to rescue her, fighting Lance twice in the game. The first battle against Lance takes place in a forest area, in which Lance attacks Matt while riding atop a giant Green Bush and lobbing bombs. After this first encounter, Lance isn't seen again until the game's last level, in which he fights Matt in his tank and attempts to destroy the hero using the tank's weaponry along with some of the fire-themed monsters native to the area. Lance is shown wearing an outfit similar to that of the officer's uniform and doesn't appear to use any weapons other than his tank. Bullet Heaven Lance is one of the unlockable characters in Bullet Heaven. His attack consists of firing large bullets. His main weapon fires large, fast moving bullets that will spread out once a "Sword" powerup is picked up. His sub-weapon fires up to 4 large shrapnel that explode into tiny bullets that spread out, damaging enemies. His Bomb attack, Hyper Beam, fires a large energy beam directly forward for a few seconds and can deflect enemy bullets. Epic Battle Fantasy 4 Lance is the final member of the party to join Anna's quest, having gone into hiding when she attacked Matt — according to the latter, Lance is a master of stealth who is impossible to find unless he wants to show himself. Sure enough, the gunner only appears at the entrance of the Crystal Caverns, berating Matt for failing to protect Natalie before reluctantly joining Anna on her journey. Lance now shows more skill with technology (such as "reprogramming" the Praetorian, for instance), and has almost tripled his magazine supply. He is more perverted than in the last game (in Waste Disposal Plant, he says he has hidden cameras on his clothes so he doesn't have to look directly at Natalie), and gets along better with Matt than Natalie. He also shows a dislike for Anna, calling her the girl that "ran around killing random people" and a "crazy person" (when she tries to explain Godcat to them) and questioning her leadership of the party. Epic Battle Fantasy 5 Once more the final party member, Lance is initially an antagonist in this game. The head of the Iron Fortress, Lance kidnaps Natalie and fights against the party. As the party traverses the Iron Fortress, they run into Lance and fight him. Fleeing the battle, Lance retreats to his hovertank, the Neon Valkyrie. He makes a last stand at the entrance to the Iron Fortress, where he fights alongside the Neon Valkyrie against the party. After his defeat, Lance begrudgingly joins the party (as a "prisoner"), and fights alongside them as they travel the world headed to the Southern Continent. Lance still has a focus on magic and technology, but has more prowess with physical skills. His perversion is toned down in exchange for a general pragmatic hatred of existence. He gets along reasonably well with Matt, but gets off to a very rough start with Natalie and Anna. Bullet Heaven 2 Lance is a playable character. Abilities Lance is a "Gunner" character that excels in neither close-quarter combat or traditional magic, but compensates with an array of high-tech devices and air support. He primarily uses Magic Attack, though he does have a few physical attacks. Regardless, it remains best for him to focus on magic. For his main weapons, he uses his Gunblade from EBF2 and a variety of massive guns he uses when executing special attacks. Most of these guns have elemental properties which carry onto his gunblade as well. He also has a field radio he uses to call for backup. typically in the form of airstrikes and medical supply drops. In EBF3, Lance's physical skill set focuses on accurate, multi-strike attacks, while his magical skills focus on rapidly destroying large waves of enemies. He is the only party member to have -elemental skills, namely Air Strike and Tank Guns. Additionally, he has some abilities to hinder foes (like Debilitate, that reduces Defence, or Bind, that reduces Evade), and support skills like Scan and Medipack. The execution of his Unleash attack varies depending on the gun; most weapons are shot in some way when unleashed, but some, like the Heavy Claw, are used to strike an enemy. Lance's move set has been changed around a little in EBF4. For instance, the Scanbot is no longer exclusive to him, and neither are some other skills like Bind or Debilitate. On the other hand, he can access some skills previously exclusive to his allies. In EBF5, Lance is the character with the most Cooldowns. Most of his attacks require 1 or 3 turns to be used again, with the M.O.A.B (which essentially fires the Secret Weapon from earlier games) requiring a tremendous 10 turns in between uses. He is centered around magic once more, specializing in heavy magical artillery (literal or otherwise), with his three main attacks (Plasma Field, Bullet Hell and Antimatter) each inflicting a status debuff, allowing him to support his teammates as he mows down foes. Due to his cooldown-rich nature, it is usually best for Lance to either be packing a buff/debuff or two so as to have a skill for in between castings of his main skills, or equip armor that gives him a second elemental boost. Doing the latter will allow him to simply alternate between his skills, keeping the damage output high and letting him repeatedly slam foes without needing to use shared skills. Also particularly useful is for Lance to have equipment that provides boosts while defending, as he can use the cooldown turn to reapply buffs. Lance's first signature Limit Break is Oblivion (a homage to Dio Brando's "Road Roller" move in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) wherein he drops down onto the targets on top of his Valkyrie Tank, smashes the tank onto them several times, and finally proceeds to detonate it with a spectacular explosion, dealing and Bomb damage (just Bomb after EBF3). The second is Nuke, which drops a massive nuclear bomb onto the battlefield, dealing extreme damage to enemies and ing ( ing in EBF4) both enemies and players. This Limit Break is dangerous to use, though nowhere as volatile as Black Hole. He also can use Ion Cannon, which fires a giant laser from a satellite in the skies, dealing massive non-elemental (EBF3) or (EBF4) damage to all foes. Concept and Creation After creating One More Final Battle, Matt Roszak wanted to create a character to replace Lancelot, Lazarus' red-haired companion. After creating Lance, however, he realized that he looked completely different than Lancelot, so proceeded to make him a completely different character. Gallery ''Epic Battle Fantasy 5'' Emotes Emo0061.jpg Emo0062.jpg Emo0063.jpg Emo0064.jpg Emo0065.jpg Emo0066.jpg Emo0067.jpg Emo0068.jpg Emo0069.jpg Emo0070.jpg Emo0071.jpg Emo0072.jpg Emo0073.jpg Emo0074.jpg Emo0075.jpg Emo0076.jpg Emo0077.jpg Emo0078.jpg Emo0079.jpg Emo0080.jpg Emo0081.jpg Emo0082.jpg Emo0083.jpg Emo0084.jpg Emo0085.jpg Emo0086.jpg Emo0087.jpg Emo0088.jpg Emo0089.jpg Emo0090.jpg Idle Animation EBF4 Lance magazine 1.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 2.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 3.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 4.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 5.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 6.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 7.svg|Magazines and newspapers EBF4 Lance magazine 8.svg|Magazines and newspapers Trivia * Lance originally wielded a sword in Brawl Royale; however, in all later appearances he uses guns, possibly to differentiate himself from Matt. * Gunblade is a weapon type in the Final Fantasy series. * In EBF2 and EBF4, Lance wears an SS Nazi uniform as his default outfit. In the original EBF, Matt is seen wearing one in the Concept Art gallery. * Prior to EBF5, Lance is the only boss in the series that joins the party as a fully playable character, unlike previous and later ones that only join as either summons or random effects. * In EBF3, Lance claims to have stolen his scanner from a man with "a tail and a rough attitude". Although the validity of this claim is debatable, Lance seems to be referring to Vegeta, a character from Dragon Ball Z who wore a similar device in his first appearance. ** With Scanbot returning to the role of enemy scanning in EBF4, Lance only uses his scanner in his Snipe animation. * Lance appears to have several traumatic experiences mining in a Minecraft-style scenario. ** He is known to have a fear of Creepers, as shown in Whitefall Town when examining the Creeper snow statue near the equipment shop with Lance being the leader of the party. ** In Crystal Caverns, he talks about a mining trip where something snuck up behind him and exploded. ** While approaching fourth world's boss in Bullet Heaven 2, Lance will mention that his father died in a "minecrafting accident". ** While the Minecraft references still are abundant, this is grounded slightly as his father died in a mining incident in Redpine Town (which was apparently a mining town before the Great Impact). References Navigation Category:Epic Battle Fantasy 2 Category:Epic Battle Fantasy 3 Category:Epic Battle Fantasy 4 Category:Epic Battle Fantasy 5 Category:Adventure Story Category:Bullet Heaven Category:Bullet Heaven 2 Category:Characters Category:Lance